I decided that I wanted to share information with you, my colleagues in this department. I'll try not to be preachy. Just informative. Since I'm always coming across stuff (which may be helpful to you) this might be the best way for me to share since face-to-face time is limited within our workday. I hope the information is helpful.
One of the two blogs I check from time to time is "Kaffeeklatch", by Kathy Schrock, (she is a long time, recognized educator and contributor to education on the Internet for the last 10 years). The video above was on her blog. I found it interesting and thought that it might be something to consider for Psychology, Sociology and Inter Disciplinary Courses. The video deals with 'Connectivism" and students use of the "net" to learn in a less than the traditional structured approach. If you have the time and inclination, view and see how this might be used. Maybe it could be used in World CivII (because of the topic/thematic possibilities). ASI and II? Off the top of my head I'd say "Probably not". You might see some possibility.
The second blog is "The Never Ending Search", authored by Joyce Valenza, Ph. D (she has a long and respected track record on the Internet and education. She's the LMC Specialist at Springfield HS, Montgomery County, PA. / Link to Springfield HS LMC on the Web). Have you tried to use anything on You Tube and been frustrated on how to get it into Power Point or turn it into a video that you can show in Windows Media Player or Apple's Quicktime Movie format. There are some good tips here. My own is this: If you use FireFox as your browser, you can add a plug-in which which automatically download the video for you to your desktop. Then you only need to convert it. To convert it, see the information below about Media Convert.
Additional Bytes from the Internet
You might find (1) TipCam and (2) Media Convert useful. TipCam is for Windows. It is a free Screen Capture program that will let you record/capture a picture of anything on your computer screen and save it (as a picture) to be used in whatever way you like. Directions and further information can be found at the link to TipCam above. Media Convert is a great Web based service (as Rob Holmes said, Web 2.0, "in the cloud") on the Internet that will convert any audio or video file from one format to the format that you need. It does not matter whether you use Windows, Mac, Linux or whatever. It converts your files for free. Simply upload the file you want converted to, select the output format, and then wait for it to be processed and made available for you to download to your computer. Let me know what you think about the info above. Blog back (we ask the kids to do this), bring it up at the department meeting, or talk about it whenever we get the chance. BTW, we could Twitter, (CNN and others in the world of work use it to quickly share information and ideas).
DeWitte
